Henk van der Grift

Hendrik ("Henk") van der Grift (born 25 December 1935) is a retired Dutch speed skater.

Henk van der Grift
Henk van der Grift in 1962
Personal information
Born (1935-03-30) 30 March 1935
Breukelen, the Netherlands
Sport
CountryNetherlands
SportSpeed skating
Medal record
Men's speed skating
Representing  Netherlands
World Allround Championships
1961 GothenburgAllround
1962 MoscowAllround
European Allround Championships
1961 HelsinkiAllround
Henk van der Grift with Reyka van Zijtveld in February 1962; they married on 22 August 1962.[1]

At the 1960 Winter Olympics van der Grift finished 10th on the 500 m and fell on the 1500 m.[2] Not satisfied with training facilities in the Netherlands, he lived in Norway for a while, working as a car mechanic. The superior training facilities in Norway paid off and van der Grift won silver at the 1961 European Allround Championships behind Olympic Champion Viktor Kosichkin. This was the first Dutch medal in international championships in eight years and it made van der Grift one of the favourites for the World Allround Championships.[3]

And van der Grift delivered: in what turned out to be his greatest year, he became the 1961 World Allround Champion in Gothenburg. On the 500 m during those championships, he finished second behind Soviet sprinter Yevgeny Grishin. He then lost many points on the 5000 m, but he overcame that deficit by winning the 1500 m. On the final distance (the 10000 m), he seemed to be losing his lead, surrendering one second each lap to Viktor Kosichkin. But van der Grift managed to skate his final two laps fast enough to retain his lead, narrowly edging out Kosichkin by a margin of just 0.162 points (equivalent to 3.24 seconds of difference on the 10000 m).[3]

His victory made van der Grift the first Dutch World Allround Champion in more than 55 years – Coen de Koning had been the last in 1905. As a result of his victory, he was elected Dutch Sportsman of the year (a title shared with Judo giant Anton Geesink)[4] and he received the 1961 Oscar Mathisen Award.[5]

In 1962, van der Grift became Dutch Allround Champion, but he did not manage to successfully defend his World Champion title that year – after three of the four distances, van der Grift was in second place behind Boris Stenin, but despite Stenin's bad result on the final distance and van der Grift overtaking Stenin, van der Grift still finished second behind Kosichkin. The following season, he fell ill and ended his speed skating career.[3]

Personal records
Personal records
Men's Speed skating
Event Result Date Location Notes
500 meter 41.2 24 February 1960 Squaw Valley
1000 meter 1:30.7 6 November 1963 Deventer
1500 meter 2:11.7 12 February 1961 Hamar
3000 meter 4:41.9 11 February 1961 Hamar
5000 meter 8:11.8 12 February 1961 Hamar
10000 meter 16:53.6 19 February 1961 Gothenburg

Van der Grift has a score of 175.960 points on the Adelskalendern.

Tournament overview
Season Dutch
Championships
Allround		 European
Championships
Allround		 Olympic
Games		 World
Championships
Allround
1954195513th 500m
19th 5000m
20th 1500m
DNQ 10000m
NC overall(19th)
1955–195630th 500m
20th 5000m
18th 1500m
DNQ 10000m
NC overall(24th)
1956–1957
1957–1958
1958–1959

1959–1960
OSLO
5th 500m
24th 5000m
12th 1500m
DNQ 10000m
NC overall(20th)
SQUAW VALLEY
10th 500m
DNF 1500m
DAVOS
5th 500m
19th 5000m
5th 1500m
16th 10000m
11th overall

1960–1961
HELSINKI
500m
7th 5000m
1500m
7th 10000m
overall
GOTHENBURG
500m
12th 5000m
1500m
10000m
overall

1961–1962
500m
5000m
1500m
10000m
overall
OSLO
500m
13th 5000m
1500m
8th 10000m
4th overall
MOSCOW
500m
8th 5000m
1500m
8th 10000m
overall

1962–1963
GOTHENBURG
10th 500m
29th 5000m
23rd 1500m
DNQ 1000m
NC overall(24th)
KARUIZAWA
19th 500m
38th 5000m
28th 1500m
DNQ 10000m
NC overall(30th)
  • NC = No classification
  • DNQ = Did not qualify

Source:[6]

Medals won
ChampionshipGold
Silver
Bronze
Dutch Allround100
European Allround010
Olympic Games000
World Allround110

Dutch records established
Nr.EventResultDateLocation
11500 meter2:23.225 February 1962Amsterdam
2Big combination204.36825 February 1962Amsterdam
3500 meter43.210 March 1962Amsterdam
45000 meter8:18.910 March 1962Amsterdam
51500 meter2:18.611 March 1962Amsterdam
610.000 meter17:58.211 March 1962Amsterdam
7Big combination193.20011 March 1962Amsterdam
81000 meter1:30.76 November 1963Deventer

[7]

Note: Prior to season 1967–1968 Dutch national records would be recognized only if skated in the Netherlands[8]


gollark: Yes. And not just x^n but x^n + 3x^(n-1) + 6 and such.
gollark: You may have seen that some quadratics have """no solution""" when doing maths. This is not true. The solutions are complex numbers.
gollark: A quadratic is a polynomial of degree 2.
gollark: The "degree" is the maximum amount of variables multiplied together in a monomial; 3 there, because x³ is xxx.
gollark: A polynomial is basically something like x³ + xy² + x + 7; the sum of some monomials, which contain variables and stuff multiplied together.

References
  1. Henk van der Grift gehuwd, "geeft elkander de rechterhand". Nationaal Archief
  2. Henk van der Grift Archived 2013-10-21 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
  3. Henk van der Grift. schaatsstatistieken.nl
  4. Sportman van het jaar. nocnsf.nl
  5. Olympians Who Were Awarded the Oscarstatuetten (Oscar Mathisen Award) Archived 2013-12-02 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
  6. https://www.speedskatingnews.info/en/data/skater/henk-van-der-grift/
  7. Bijlsma c.s. 1997, pp. 449-458.
  8. Bijlsma c.s. 1997, p. 448.
Awards
Preceded by
Eef Kamerbeek		 Dutch Sportsman of the Year
with Anton Geesink
1961		 Succeeded by
Henk Nijdam
Preceded by
Boris Stenin		 Oscar Mathisen Award
1961		 Succeeded by
Jonny Nilsson
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.